Middle Ages
Alhambra Decree (1492): The Expulsion of the Jews From Spain
Jews who refused baptism were expelled from Castile and Aragon; tens of thousands left, many others converted, and the Sephardic diaspora spread across the Mediterranean.
All Articles
Every Chronicle article on world history, newest first: battles, empires, disasters, discoveries and revolutions.
Ancient World
Edict of Milan (313): Toleration for Christians in the Empire
Christians and all others gained legal freedom of worship, and property confiscated from the Church was ordered to be returned.
Modern Era
Death of Adolf Hitler (1945): The Last Days in the Führerbunker
Hitler and Eva Braun died by suicide, their bodies were burned, and Germany surrendered a week later; Soviet investigators recovered the remains and secretly destroyed them in 1970.
Middle Ages
Hangul: King Sejong Creates the Korean Alphabet (1443)
Korea gained a phonetic alphabet of 28 letters, promulgated in the Hunminjeongeum of 1446, which in the twentieth century became the main script of Korean.
Middle Ages
Fall of Granada (1492): The End of the Reconquista
The Nasrid Emirate of Granada surrendered to the Crown of Castile, ending almost eight centuries of Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula.
Ancient World
Battle of the Milvian Bridge (312): Constantine's Victory
Constantine won decisively; Maxentius drowned in the Tiber and Constantine became sole ruler of the western Roman Empire.
Modern Era
Liberation of Bergen-Belsen (1945): What British Troops Found
British forces took over the camp and fought a typhus epidemic, but about 13,000 former prisoners died in the weeks after liberation; the evidence filmed there shaped Western understanding of Nazi crimes.
Middle Ages
The Tribute Giraffe of 1414: An African Animal at the Ming Court
The giraffe was celebrated at court as a qilin, an auspicious sign of good rule, and further giraffes from East Africa followed in later years.
Middle Ages
Battle of Bosworth (1485): Richard III Falls, the Tudors Rise
Richard III was killed and his army defeated; Henry Tudor became King Henry VII, founding the Tudor dynasty.
Ancient World
Great Persecution (303-311): Diocletian Against the Christians
The persecution failed to suppress Christianity; Galerius ended it with an edict of toleration in 311, and it was finally abandoned in the East in 313.
Modern Era
Bombing of Tokyo (1945): The Operation Meetinghouse Firestorm
About 41 square kilometres of eastern Tokyo burned, an estimated 80,000–100,000 or more people died and over a million were made homeless in the deadliest single air raid in history.
Middle Ages
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing: Lost Wonder of Ming China (1412)
A nine-storey glazed pagoda about 70–80 m tall stood for over four centuries and became famous in Europe before it was destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion.